Skin contacting products such as body wearable collection devices are formed of material(s) having certain known desirable characteristics. If the collection device comprises a body waste collection pouch, these characteristics typically include the ability to receive and hold human body wastes of the type experienced in ostomy, continence and wound care for a determinable period of time while also typically serving as a satisfactory gas and odor barrier while being used. Further, it would be highly desirable to form such skin contacting products of a laminated material having a non-woven or other fibrous or fabric-like surface.
At the present time, there are commercially available films which are known to be particularly effective in many respects for these types of products. The films are known to be useful in devices which are generally capable of receiving and holding human body waste material and, if desired, the films can be formed so as to provide the requisite gas and odor barrier characteristics. However, the known commercially available films also are less than desirable in terms of certain other desirable characteristics.
In particular, films which are currently available are sometimes unacceptable as to “hand” or “feel”. They have a tendency to stick against the body in hot or humid conditions and/or after showering, which is known to cause discomfort to the user of skin contacting products. Further, commercially available films have a tendency to produce an undesirable crinkling noise in use.
To counteract these problems, it has been proposed to laminate the film with a non-woven or other fibrous or fabric-like layer. This may be accomplished by thermally securing the surface of the film to such a layer. It has been suggested that this covering arrangement will achieve sound-deadening as well as a better “hand” or “feel”.
However, skin contacting products such as body wearable collection devices usually require the ability to attach components thereto. And it is known to be difficult to attach components to what may be a “fuzzy” non-woven or fibrous or fabric-like exterior surface of body wearable collection devices. When components are adhesively attached to such a material, the anchorage is usually quite weak and there is the potential for leaks.
As will be appreciated, this is because the binding method only locks onto individual fibers of the fuzzy material which is commonly used to form the body wearable collection device. In the case of using an adhesive as an attachment method for attaching components to such a material, the adhesive does not wrap around every one of the fibers and, as a result, there is the potential for leak paths in the fuzzy material. For this reason, there has remained a need to develop a skin contacting product addressing all of the noted problems including the ability to attach components in a secure manner to the fuzzy material.